Digital + TV Industry Insights

It’s hard to resist those TV commercials that show a husband surprising his wife with a new car, or vice versa. In truth, major household purchasing decisions rarely belong to one family member. Even orange juice calls for consensus. People are surprisingly passionate about pulp. (Or, if your family is like mine, the absence of it.)

Marketers all recognize the need to target campaigns with as much precision as possible. But there are times when it’s possible to be too precise, and the family home is the place where that can happen.

Again, let’s use car buying as the example. Assuming a new car isn’t intended as a surprise gift, the purchase of an automobile is a major household decision. If a car manufacturer targets their mobile campaign to the husband while a competing manufacturer targets the wife, neither ad will be as effective as it could be if it went to both spouses – and the kids, for that matter, especially if they’re driving age or close to it.